From the side of the bottle: ...and also: We've past the winter solstice (hooray!), but things in Portland are still pretty dark and dim this time of year, where the sun rises at 8:00 AM and promptly sets eight hours later; where the night devours us and nothing but bleak darkness can be seen all around us. Or something like that. Whatever, let's drink some beer. I actually avoided this beer for months because I haven't been super-into black IPA/CDAs lately. I loved the first one I ever tried, but have progressively found them to be pretty hit or miss. The style itself seems pretty varied and ill-defined... is it dark? Does it have some hops presence still, though? Call it a CDA. Or a Black IPA. Or an India Black Ale. Or... I digress. Okay, let's get to the point already: Black Friday Beer is awesome. It's one of the best Cascadian Dark Ales I've ever had, actually. Very smooth, roasty, creamy, and yet still aggressively hoppy. A much bigger flavor-punch than I've seen in most CDAs, which was quite welcome. Can Gigantic do no wrong? It's certainly starting to seem that way...